


Designated Family Time

by MagpieMorality



Series: Valentine Shorts 2020 [17]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Adult Virgil, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Human (?) Patton, Human Virgil, Hydra/Shapeshifter/Fusable Roman & Remus, Insecurity, Kid Sides (Sanders Sides), Pranks, Shenanigans, Snakes, Virgil's Parenting Skills, minor hurt/comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:36:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22701085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagpieMorality/pseuds/MagpieMorality
Summary: A series of scenes set in the Fantastic Family AU! Mostly fluffy hijinks, all in chronological order with notes included for clarity!
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Platonic DR LAMP
Series: Valentine Shorts 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629586
Comments: 4
Kudos: 136





	1. On The Right Track

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil feels a little daunted by the job he's taken on caring for Roman and Remus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt: Older brother Virgil or Parent Virgil, trying his best to look after the others. 
> 
> Set after the twins have joined the family, and before Logan has. Remus and Roman are split from each other and in the form of harpies (partly human with bird/clawed feet, feathered lower halves and wings for arms. D.C. has revealed he speaks.

Virgil generally likes to think he’s a good parent. He’s not experienced, at all, and he mostly has no idea what he’s doing, but his kids and other dependents seem happy and healthy enough, so he can’t be failing too bad, right?

He doubts himself occasionally, especially early on. After he first ends up with Roman and Remus, and has to learn the quirks of caring for such an unusual and tiny chaotic creature. How do you parent a child (children!) who is not only a shapeshifter with incredible potential but also has the amazing ability to fuse and unfuse with its two halves? 

After the third night when the little hydra (he really isn’t sure they count as a hydra, only having the two heads, but that’s what D.C. had called them and D.C. seemed to know these things) had run rampant through the house, splitting and shifting and fusing and _refusing to go to bed_ , he found himself slumped in the dark on his ratty couch, wishing he could be a normal twenty-something on a Friday night, out for drinks with friends, instead of worrying about the safety of a secret city and trying to parent children (a child?) who really didn’t take to being parented. 

“Am I making a mistake?” He whispers to the darkness. Nothing replies, of course, because despite the weirdness of his new world the walls don’t actually talk. They listen hard as hell though, and he pours a lot of thoughts out to them. “It was weird enough to start helping the defence team. Why did I think I could look after the twins too?” 

Still nothing. There’s only the sound of a car outside on the street, which is comforting in its normality. He groans, stands up, and trudges through his too-small apartment to check on the hydra baby. Roman and Remus are unfused, little harpy bodies (he thinks that’s a harpy, another thing to add to the list of creatures they can shift into) curled together, hands held tightly. They look somewhat angelic, despite the sharp claws and teeth and the pointed faces. Twin little noses, chests rising and falling peacefully, caramel brown curls flopping over each face. 

Roman stirs and rolls further into Remus when Virgil bends down to nudge him, tucking the covers back up where a restless wing had pushed them down. It leaves him breathless with a pang of pure love, and he drinks the scene in for a moment. 

Maybe he’s not doing too badly after all...


	2. Cookie Heist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus goes after some freshly baked cookies...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the prompt: "You aren't the boss of me." With Dukexiety? (But again, happy ending, pls!) 💜💚
> 
> Set after the twins, Logan and Patton have all joined the family. Remus is split from Roman and in the form of a baby dragon!

Remus stares up at the man. The man stares back. Remus steps slowly to the left and the man mirrors him, arms folded. Remus suddenly jumps all the way back to the right, trying to beat the man but, mostly by virtue of the human’s much taller stature and longer legs, Virgil matches him perfectly. 

He’s still firmly planted square in the middle of the kitchen doorway, keeping him from getting past to his target. Remus whines, his stumpy tail thumping on the floor unhappily, a little snort of smoke trailing from his snout. Virgil just stays blocking the entrance, looking distinctly amused and entirely immovable while the cooling batch of cookies taunt Remus from behind him on the counter.

He yelps when Remus tries to dart forwards and slip between his legs, lunging down to block the boy currently shaped like a little dragon with his hands. Remus whines again, and Virgil chuckles at his frustration. “Find something else to hunt, small fry. You’re not coming in.” 

“You aren’t the boss of me,” Remus growls, trying one last time to get past. It’s one too many for Virgil, who finally bends down to end the stand off.

“Oh yes I am,” Virgil says, lifting the little dragon up into his arms. Remus protests, trying to climb over his shoulder but Virgil uses his free hand to close the door behind him, clamping down surprisingly strongly with the other and then carrying Remus through the apartment to the balcony. “Come on, let’s go annoy D.C., I think our scaley friend has been getting lazy without you two to handle all the time. You can compare fangs.” 

Remus grumbles and settles down comfortably. That does sound like fun. And when Virgil is distracted by the snake…? _He’ll try again_. 


	3. Fun & Games

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil loves knowing his kids are having fun. Even when it's at his own expense...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Yeah, yeah. You’re cute. Just stop smiling at me like that.” With platonic Moxiety?
> 
> Take two because take one I misread Moxiety as Moceit!
> 
> Set after the twins, Logan and Patton have all joined the family. The twins are not described but are split and in the form of fauns.

Virgil loves his disaster family, he truly does. He’d never had one of his own, growing up and he’d missed all of the things that he tries to give every one of his strange children, and boy does it feel good to know he’s achieving that goal day by tough, long, rewarding day. 

One of the things he encourages most is play, even with Logan and D.C., because there’s nothing better than being in your own home, surrounded by the sound of happiness and joy and fun. 

Take right now for instance, he’s been napping on the couch for about an hour and is just starting to rouse when he hears giggling from nearby. What he doesn’t so much like the sound of is the hushing and scamper of mischievous little feet, before a small hand taps his shoulder lightly and a matching voice calls, “Daddy Vee? You ‘wake?” 

“Hey Pat,” Virgil mumbles, yawning. Patton giggles again, and Roman must be nearby because he hears him start to say something before Patton hushes him, whispering way too loudly for him to go away and wait for the signal. Uh oh. “Patton.”

“Yes Devee?” Patton chirps, angelic cherub looking demon child that he is. He _knows_ using his baby name for Virgil will weaken him to his schemes. 

“If I open my eyes, what am I going to see?” Patton smothers his giggles again and Roman and Remus do the same. There’s a creak that signifies that Logan is probably also in on this, somewhere else in the room. 

Patton manages to wrestle control from his own amusement enough to reply. “Nothing weird! Nothing weird _at all_!” He does that terrifying demonic gurgle of joy that Virgil has discovered kids sometimes do when they’re just finding themselves _so_ funny they can’t contain it. It’s a big old red flag. 

“Nothing weird, huh?” Virgil asks, resigning himself to an abrupt loss of the nice peacefulness that had sent him into the doze in the first place. “Alright. I’m opening my eyes now…”

Patton tells the others to get ready, and Logan is definitely there because he hears a tiny ‘affirmative’ from the corner. Virgil makes sure to count down from three- because he’s not a _monster_ , he’s a _dad_ now- and then he opens his eyes. 

From his position on his back he can see the ‘nothing weird’ right away. Somehow the kids have strung up every single pair of his underpants and socks like cotton garlands over the ceiling, the lines criss-crossing and hanging in a surprisingly garland-like looking way. He’s a little impressed. Except that it’s his underwear. 

“Oh, you guys are in so much trouble!” He jumps up to scoop up a shrieking Patton from by the arm of the couch, but Patton shouts “now!” and then suddenly all of the garlands start to fall, catching him and tangling him where stands, bringing him to the floor when he trips. Logan and the twins get away, but unfortunately for Patton he gets a foot snagged on a line and tumbles down. 

Virgil catches him like a pro-baseball player- yeah he’s proud of it too, it’s pretty awesome- tickling the boy mercilessly until they both run out of steam and Patton goes dramatically limp in his arms, still grinning at him. Virgil snorts and boops his nose. “Yeah, yeah. You’re cute. Just stop smiling at me like that. You got caught, little dude, that means _you_ get to help me tidy it all up.”

Patton’s grin turns to an open-mouthed scowl of outrage, and Virgil settles in for the battle. 

Dad’s gotta dad, after all. 


End file.
